Wizard of Legend is a roguelike 2D dungeon crawler by Contingent99. You assume the role of a time displaced museum enthusiast who is thrust into the Chaos Trials, a test made to find the titular Wizard of Legend. You use spell cards and relics to craft your own way through the trial.

The aesthetic is the popular pixel style with lower fleshed out character designs, which works in its favor. The enemies are all still very distinct and the various biomes all feel distinct. Your player character is fairly featureless except for their cloak and the various hats.

Combat is very fluid and unforgiving. With large spells that can cover the enemies, you can prevent yourself from seeing if you hit enemies and opening yourself to attack. This is why you need to make sure you are comboing properly to take enemies down quickly. Bosses and minibosses also need to be watched so they can be staggered which allows for more damage.

The visuals mix well with the fast paced gameplay as you dart quickly from room to room dealing with enemies depending on how you built your deck. You start with four cards, a basic attack, a dash, a normal spell and a signature spell. You can collect up to two additional spells during gameplay and can trade out any of your spells except your signature spell with cards you find through the trial.

Relics are key to your synergies. They can affect your spells damage, enhance your defences or many other miscellaneous effects. Choosing relics that will compliment your playstyle can drastically change your strategies when dashing from room to room. On top of relics you will mix and match elements to combat the strengths and weaknesses of the enemies you find.

Levels get procedurally generated starting in one of three random biomes, which themselves are dependant on the enemies inside. The rooms are similar in all of the biomes, so you won’t see a lot of differences outside of their aesthetics. There are additionally two shops and a special room on each floor. Outside of the shops, which you can buy relics and spell cards, the special rooms can contain treasure, curses and gambling opportunities.

Progression in the game comes from gems that you find on enemies and bosses. You can buy more spells, signatures, relics and cloaks to help you better prepare for the coming runs. I found that as I got further in runs, the major purchases ran out quickly. There is still plenty for me to unlock, but it feels the big hitting spells and relics are gone for now.

Overall there are problems with this game. Mostly I have issues with the amount of content. The runs are over quickly and can get stale when you find the combos that just wreck anything in your path. With that being said, the developers do have plans to expand content. The promise of content coming and a fair price of $15.99 as of this sentence, I do suggest getting the game. I have put 15 hours into it so far and feel like I have gotten exactly what the game promised, a fun challenging fast paced dungeon romp that makes me feel like a badass wizard. Wizard of Legend is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and XBox One.

This is coming late, but the Baguette update to Dead Cells is out! I figure since the latest update is out, I should do my review of my most played game of last year. Dead Cells is a rogue-lite metroidvania game in that it is a 2D platformer with procedurally generated maps and a progression system with upgradable and unlockables. You play the prisoner, a previously executed individual who is trying to escape the island.

Dead Cells is often compared to Dark Souls and that is a poor comparison. The difficulty is what draws the comparison. That is really where the comparisons stop. As you progress with each playthrough things become easier, allow you to overcome the previous obstacles and move to the next challenge. You repeat this then as you go through more difficult stages and face more difficult enemies.

Stages progress through different biomes, using procedurally generated maps to give you a unique experience with each playthrough. Some paths you choose to take are easier or more difficult and the rewards you get in various currency, weapons and active use items. The system caters to however you want to play.

Progression in each run comes down to what weapons and active items you use. There are various melee weapons, shields and ranged weapons for your primary slots. Each primary item has its own situational use to cater to different playstyles. Active items have a large range of uses from turrets, grenades, buffs and traps. The active items are all cooldown based and change the strategies you will use. A more recent thing added is mutations, which will give you any range of buffs from more dps to reduced cooldowns based on their associated stat.

You will find scrolls on each playthrough that can increase any of three stats. They used to buff specific things, but have changed in more recent patches. The stats are red (brutality), purple (tactics) and green (survival). Each one of these will boost your health with diminishing returns, give boost to their corresponding mutations and increase damage of your weapons and active skills based on their color.

Added even more recently was the blacksmith. You are able to upgrade your items to make them more powerful, giving you more use for gold. It introduces plus items and legendary as well. These allow for more affixes to the items and increases their DPS.

There is a reason that I put so much time into the game. I’ve dropped similar games like this, but what keeps me coming back is the feel. I am a huge fan of old castlevania games and this gives me one of the best feeling experiences. The feeling of nostalgia with a challenging difficulty will keep me playing this game, when other games will come and go. The cost and replayability are definitely worth the experience. You can play Dead Cells on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Playstation 4.

In the “not so grand” Grand Finale of F1 2016. Red Bull and Haas continue their battle for first, but Haas had a vice grip on Red Bull. Omsad and Alienseatsk8rs; MV_930 and CraSix, these constant head to head battles throughout the races would reach their climax as the races became even more important.

In standard fashion, MV_930 would continue to be disqualified in Qualifying for Mexico, leaving room for Omsad’s AI to place second on the starting grid. The first race would see CraSix off to an early lead that he would maintain throughout the whole race. Leaving just a battle for second, Omsad would claim that spot for his own with Alienseatsk8rs in third, but in typical Alien grandeur, he would swiftly fall to fourth. A friendly jostling for position flared up for second, but Omsad would switch on the hacks to deny MV_930.

The race would end with CraSix in first, MV_930 in second, Omsad with third, and Alienseatsk8rs holding down fourth.

Qualifying in Brazil would prove fruitful for Red Bull with neither member of Haas finishing legally. While Red Bull would have favorable positions to start, the tenacity of CraSix and the folly of Omsad would make it a challenging race that would see cheap shots and dirty racing carried out by Haas as they looked to cement their positions.

The final race of the season would take the racers to Abu Dhabi. Qualifying would go smoothly for everyone but MV_930 who, once again, did not qualify. In a last ditch effort to win the season for his team, Omsad took a shot at CraSix on the first corner, but only costing himself some time. The following lap, possibly from some unseen damage, CraSix would blow a tire.

Leaving CraSix in the dust, the other racers would feel confident about their chances for this race. CraSix again showing his determination and racing skills, would roar to second place on the back of his midgets (are we really surprised by the midgets? No)

With the final race of the season over, F1 2016 Championship 2 came to a close.

Many of you already know this game very well. However, a lot of you don’t. Being said, as a strong advocate of this game I will briefly go over some of the more basic things that a lot of you may already know.

Introduction

Escape From Tarkov is a hyper realistic mil-sim FPS. The game is loosely based around a war torn and post apocalyptic Russia where three factions fight over forgotten loot that is scattered through out the area. The game is listed as an early access Beta release but I personally believe it’s still in an Alpha stage. The reason I say this is because half the game is still unlocked and some of the core skills and mechanics have not been added and the ones that are have been constantly reworked on a regular basis. Being said, let’s go ahead and talk about the new 0.8.0 patch and the things that it’s introduced, fixed, and some of the problems that its highlighted in it’s release.

The three factions in this game are BEAR, USEC, and Scavs. BEAR and USEC are your main character’s faction choice. Currently, there is no difference between the two of them. Later in development, the BEAR will have bonuses to the AK systems and be tailored to using them. The USEC will be trained in using the M4 and other guns as well to give them the benefit of using those. Scavs are another player choice, but they work differently. As a Scav player, the game sets you up with a very low end gear load out and lets you spawn late into the game to be a scavanger. This let’s you go in with a very low risk and high reward situation. If you die, the gear that you lost wasn’t yours to begin with. Being said, if you survive, you keep anything that you bring out of the raid.

There are currently 5 maps available to choose from. These maps are Factory, Customs, Woods, Shoreline, and Interchange. You can enter these raids as a solo player or have up to 4 other team members. Depending on the map you choose, there will be X amount of other players that enter the raid including AI Scavs that spawn in the map. After a few minutes into the raid, a handful of Scav players will spawn in the raid late to get their piece of the action. The drawback of going in as a squad is communication is KEY. This isn’t Call of Duty. There are no teammate indicators so knowing who your teammate is and exactly where they are is one of the most important things that determine a successful raid and a death screen saying that your team mate put a 5.56 into your head.

This game is a giant adrenaline rush of rage, excitement, and “oh shit” moments. Killing a player who is in end game gear and getting out alive with it is incredibly gratifying because you know how hard he worked and how much time and money he spent to get those items. At the time of writing this, this is by far my favorite shooter on the market and one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had playing a game.

Now that we’ve touched down on the basics of the game, let’s go ahead and look at the changes and content that 0.8 brought us.

Interchange

Interchange is the newest map introduced to Battle State Game’s “Escape From Tarkov.” The map isn’t necessarily big, but due to the vertical gameplay design inside the map it feels massive. Interchange is a giant shopping complex that consists of three very big stores (Idea, Oli, and Goshan) and is intertwined by various stores that litter both sides of the hallways connecting the three of them. This map is currently a loot haven. As a team of 5, there is enough loot that you can all go in and come out with extra guns, gear, and bartering items.

Currently, there are no AI Scavs in this map and Scav Players don’t have the option to join. Being said, it can seem like an absolute snooze fest. The design, lighting, and environment elements that go into this map are absolutely phenomenal. Once Scavs are added, I believe this will be my go-to map for my normal runs. Generally when you come into this map at the time, you will encounter a few hatcheters but also a fully geared team or two. The lay out of the mall lets you make a lot of choices in the way you fight. The engagements are highly entertaining and let you be stealthy or run straight into gun fights and go loud.

Armor and Ammo Balances

Armor and ammunition changes have been a huge talking point of this map. I don’t agree with a lot of them personally, however, I realize they will be changed down the road and fine tuned. I will not go through each ammo type one by one as there are a lot of them, but we will touch base on how they work. There are various types of ammo in this game for each caliber. Each variation has a different base damage and base penetration value. The armor values work in a similar way. Each armor can block X amount of penetration and damage. It DID need to be adjusted. However, at this point in time they seriously need to reevaluate the numerical values tied to each piece of equipment. Prior to 0.8, end game Fort armor was an absolute bullet sponge that could tank 12-15 9×18 bullets before it started to really cause fatal damage to the user. This is when the ‘leg meta’ came into play where players would aim for the legs as their was no armor and it was much faster to cut down the competition that way rather than going for the skillful headshots or “mag dumping” into someone’s chest.

In 0.8, they added a face hitbox. This allows helmet wearers to still be one shot if a bullet connects to their face, ears, or the nape of their neck. I love this concept, however, it is still currently severely broken with some of the new things implemented. You can purchase an end game FAST MT helmet with a mandible or visor for roughly $2500 or 250,000 Roubles and still get one tapped by a Scav with a shotgun from 100 meters away. I understand that this new mechanic will take time to test and get right. At the moment, it is incredible broken. I do, however, have faith that BSG will get this right in time and have it where it needs to be.

It has been verified that the mandible on the FAST MT is currently broken and is not registering bullets that hit them so they just go directly through it. The face shields do their job, but the armor value on them only allow for 1 medium tier to be stopped. A high end bullet will still 1 tap the wearer if hit directly in the shield. Being this small of an advantage, the audible sound dampening and the visual impairment while wearing these are a giant hinderance and it is ultimately left up to you to decide whether it’s worth it or not.

With 0.8’s adjustments of the ammo and value changes, I believe they completely need to be reworked. There was something wrong prior to the patch and I applaud BSG for listening to the community and trying to fix it. However, instead of fixing the base for one of the two things, they switched both. They greatly increased the base damage and penetration values of almost all ammunition and reduced the armor value of all pieces in the game. This can make it feel like you’re cannon fodder while wearing a paper mache gear load out similar to the ones you’d find at a local LARP event. In time, I know that they will fix this. It’s just hard to justify spending 400,000+ Roubles at the moment for a FAST and Fort armor due to the disadvantages that come with it for speed, sight, and sound.

Hatchets

Hatchets. Hatcheters. Scum of the Earth. Little bastard children of the Russian Scav Gods. Wiggling little back stabbing sons of bitches who you trust once and then they sink their god damn hatchet into the back of your neck when you murder a Scav and save their life because the greedy little shitbags know no moral values and have zero respect. Okay, I’m done. But, seriously… some of these nuisances have been brought to a halt due to recent changes in the way that hatchets work.

Hatcheting has been a viable option to run in this game. Basically, you go into a game with zero loot on your body whatsoever and you’re armed with nothing more than a hatchet. Zero risk, huge rewards. It used to actually be LESS of an issue pre 0.8 due to the fact there was no face hitbox. Prior to 0.8, fully kitted players would laugh at hatcheters. They were the little brothers or sisters that we would make fun of as teenagers that would hit us and scream and cry because they couldn’t hurt us regardless of how hard they tried. At the beginning of 0.8, those hatcheters were terrifying. Even if you were in full armor and a helmet, they could jump out of a corner and hit you in the face and immediately bring the rage filled death screen recap that all players have become very familiar with. Luckily, hatchet reach and damage has been reworked. Are they still effective? Yes. Are you going to be able to run up and one shot someone and get their gear and run off to the extraction and store it in your stash before they even have an idea of what happened to them? No.

The reach and damage of hatchets has been drastically reduced. It will now take a lot of skill, smarts, and wit to kill a fully kitted player with a hatchet. It is still doable, however. Most players were blind to the fact that there is actually two different animations to attacking with a knife or a hatchet. LMB is your standard “swing” or “slash.” However, if you click RMB while close to an enemy, your character will actually do a punching motion. While the reach of this attack is much less, the damage is increased by 40%. A base LMB attack does 25 damage while a base RMB attack does 35. This doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re sinking that into someone’s face with two quick and successive hits at close range it makes a huge difference.

Guns, Armors, Backpacks, Tactical Rigs, and Helmets!

New guns, armors, and helmets have been added! By the time a wipe comes to a close, we generally all get pretty tired of the weapons that we have been using. 0.8 has brought us many new toys that we can play with. The new AK variant series of assault rifles, M1A, 870, and a new fully automatic pistol have all been added for us to use in raids. In addition, there has been new armors, backpacks, and helmets added as well. I won’t touch down on each of these, as there are a lot of them. However, I will state that they added these items to “fill up” the void areas of armor and helmet levels in game. Previously, we didn’t have options for all armor levels (1-6) for helmets and armor. Now, we have a lot more to choose from.

The new AK 100 series variants are a very welcomed addition to the game. These guns give you a new way to fully kit out an AK and also offer the gun in both 5.56 and 7.62 calibers. The M1A has turned into a armor shredding monster that rewards accuracy with it’s 20 round magazines. With the new reloading mechanics, the Stechkin Automatic Pistol (APS) is a very viable sidearm to use in raids when in a long fight and the bullets in your clips are diminishing fast. The 870 is an addition that a lot of people were looking forward to. A very ergonomic friendly shotgun with the ability to clear rooms quickly.

Ragman

Ragman is a new vendor to Tarkov. Want to give your character some personal flair? Have an idiot team mate who constantly shoots you because he doesn’t realize it’s you and can’t listen to comms? This is the place to go. In standard Scav Tarkov fashion, make the idiots wear baseball caps. Baseball caps signify that you’re a very bad player so other players will avoid shooting you and let you play because they know you’re gonna be dead in 30 seconds anyways. Also, your team mates will realize “hey, it’s that idiot team mate of ours that doesn’t wanna wear a helmet so he has a hat on.” (You know who you are, but I won’t say names. (Atpot) (I can do brackets, too, Selzzek.) (BRACKETS!))))

Ragman is also the new go-to vendor to get your armor, helmets, and backpacks. The prices have gone waaaaaaaaaay up. I already touched down on how I feel about the way armor and helmets have worked in this patch, so I won’t say more on that. However, this is now the place to go to get your load out for your upcoming raids. Not much can be said about Ragman. The only thing I would change about him is his Royalty tier level needed. Currently, it sits at level 40. It takes a LONG time to get to level 40 in this game. Personally, I would have liked to see this number around 35.

Reloading

Mag dumping is no longer the meta. Generally, you load up with two 60 round mags for your gun of choice and don’t stop shooting until the gun goes click. Once you’re empty, while your character was in animation of reloading, you’d swap to your inventory and drag a stack of ammo into your empty mag and exit and continue. With this patch, the meta has changed. In this patch, they introduced a time-based reloading mechanic. Being said, this will reward the skilled and patient players who take their time to line up their shots. You now have to decide whether you have to unload as many bullets as fast as possible or take the time to make sure they are all landing. Inventory size is precious in this game, and allocating 4 extra slots to more filled magazines can be incredibly beneficial or incredibly hinder you depending on what you find in a raid.

I love this change. I love the things they implemented for it. Some people are very salty about this change because as I said, it changed the meta of the game. I’m sure as the game progresses more changes will be put in place to speed up this action. However, I am incredibly happy with where this is at currently.

Skills

Some of the skills have been changed in 0.8. The Strength skill was incredibly broken and easily exploitable. Luckily, BSG addressed this by doing a hotfix to wipe everyone back to 0 and change the way strength is obtained. Endurance also took a huge hit in how fast you level it up. Currently, I am sitting at level 38 in game and my endurance is hovering at around 15. Prior to this patch, at this level I would have easily been at level 30 by now. I enjoy knowing it’s going to take more time to level up your character’s soft skills for end game. The benefits of a skill at the max level of 51 are incredibly strong and it should take a long time to get them. In addition to reworking the skills, they are also more important than ever as they have greatly reduced recoil in game with all guns. Skills will level up by performing actions and will decrease over time if you ignore doing them. This aspect of the game is something we’ve never seen in an FPS before so we have to understand that it will take time to get all of these things correct.

Scav Behaviour

Scavs have seemed to get a lot smarter. You still find the ones out in the world that are related to Maniac Shogun, though. You know the ones… Walking into walls… A fifth limb due to multiple generations of incest in the family. I’ve provided a clip to show you what exactly I’m referencing.

Scavs now seem to react differently. They’ll search for cover more quickly, lay down and go prone, and be a little bit more stealthy around the map. There’s also the Terminator/Rambo Scavs you’ll occasionally encounter. I do like these changes that they made to the Scavs. However, the fact that a Scav with an MP153 can target an unarmored limb from 100 meters away is a bit unrealistic. There are changes that need to be made here, but they have made the Scavs much more dangerous this wipe.

They removed the “legs” of your character from the Scavs view. This means that “half mass” for your character is now your sternum. With the new hitbox for the face and the increased damage on shotguns a Scav with a shotgun at 50 meters away will aim for your sternum and there is a very good chance one of the buckshot will hit you in the face and immediately “one tap” you. Going forward, I hope they balance this further. I am glad that the Scavs are more intimidating now rather than just a standing target that you can easily kill with a single bullet to the head.

Quests

With the introduction of new traders comes new quests. Surprisingly, the newest vendor doesn’t have any quests. Mechanic, however, received a lot of them. These quests range from the common loot and turn in to modifying guns that meet certain requirements. There isn’t too much to comment on here. Complete the quests to gain reputation with the vendor and further your ability to buy new and better gear. Some of the quests are a bit repetitive and some of the items can really stifle your stash size if you have anything less than the Edge of Darkness edition. However, these things need to be in the game for to keep it balanced when it comes to upgrading your vendors and gaining access to higher tiered and end game items.

Netcode, Optimization, and Tickrate

Oh, boy. Netcode and tickrate talk, boys. Prior to 0.8 there was a lot of controversy to these two things. With 0.8, they have greatly improved on these two issues. There NEEDS to be further improvements to both of these. For those who know me, they know I don’t get mad at video games. I never yell, I never get angry, and I always try to have fun when I’m playing.

Saying this, there has been multiple times I have thrown together short phrases, sentences, paragraphs… hell, even an essays worth of curse words strung together regarding my feelings about being shot while I’m behind cover while I’m standing out in the open on the other player’s screen. It has been shown that the netcode issues have been greatly improved by as much as 75%.

The tickrate is still abysmal at times. You can peek, shoot four times, hit the enemy with all shots, and then get back into cover and you’ll hear him fire 3-4 more shots before succumbing to the fatal shots you just placed into him. With 0.8, they have improved things drastically. There still needs to be more done, though.

Optimization has taken a giant leap in the right direction. Where we used to get drops to 20-30 fps before, we are currently holding at 40+ now. This plays a HUGE role in the game due to the fact that damage and RPM was tied to FPS on client side.

Conclusion

0.8 comes with a lot of highs and lows. There are many things here that I haven’t touched down and some of the really important things that I have. There are problems that still haven’t been adressed that need to be immediately. At the end of the day, you have to remember this is an early access game that is still under heavy development with new ideas and changes brought to the table everyday.

Games like this don’t come around often. These types of mechanics can both be ground breaking and game breaking in these games. Tarkov is like no other FPS that I have played before and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a thrilling FPS game. This game has come a long way and has an even longer way to go.

This patch has been the best thing that has ever happened to Tarkov in the time that I’ve played it. In a title with such ambitious goals and in early development, you have to understand that you will encounter bugs and issues through out the game. I do highly recommend this game. I love what they are doing. I love the direction they are going with it, but be cautious about going into this game with high expectations.

If you want to check out more Escape From Tarkov and read even more about the game or purchase the game and try it for yourself, head on over to www.escapefromtarkov.com

With season 10 upon us we return to the scramble of what meta will prevail in competitive Overwatch. While pros may get a mention this is hardly a discussion of how league plays and is only written by a plat so don’t expect a high level of analysis.

The general quality of life changes will make for improved solo q, don’t underestimate the power of ‘avoid as teammate’ even if they were on the enemy team and they were being destroyed repeatedly (okay this was added at the end of last season but it’s still relatively new). Whilst I like the new map on PTR (Rialto) it won’t be in comp for a significant while so it doesn’t bare much discussion here.

Ignoring the upper echelons of rank it is my firm belief that all heroes are viable if co-ordinated well, obviously some will be more challenging but they will still work. In solo q this challenge is greatly increased as everyone wants to carry with an amazing 1v6 play. It is pretty likely that 2-2-2 will be the most common strat that gets value in play for most situations like it has for most of the past 9 seasons.

The biggest change to comp will be the arrival of Brigitte into the hero pool, her stun ability and knockback have strong anti-dive implications and her brawling nature may herald the return of a deathball sustain playstyle. One potent strategy for 6-stack teams is a crowd control team of Roadhog, Orisa, Doomfist, Pharah, Lucio and Brigitte – even without good heals to the Pharah the enemy will have hard time to focus anyone with constant disruptions to position and abilities.

Support
Triple support with 2/3 tanks featuring Brigitte, Lucio and a burst heal is looking like a good brawl setup although with Reaper and Mei buffs it may also be countered. Two support teams are going to consist mostly of Brigitte and Moira with Zenyatta/Lucio as a surprise change. Mercy will still have a huge amount of players choosing her but will stay pretty much average healing unless anything major changes with her.

Tank
Despite her damage being nerfed D.va is still going to be viable in most regards. Reinhardt is going to be more useful now that Brigitte can protect him from flankers. Basically just remember to add good tank mains, with fewer and fewer people playing them you’ll want someone willing.

Defence
Mei’s buff will allow her a lot of impact power, especially at lower ranks. A lot of players seemed to be picking up Widowmaker towards the end of last season and while I expect that to continue unless your mechanical skills are so much better than game sense and strategy it’s not something I recommend. Torbjörn and Bastion will be the same as always, pirate ship will probably still work for some payload maps… yeah that’s just the same while Brigitte protects from flankers. I suck at Hanzo but I’m told if the PTR changes remain he’ll be OP.

Offense
Reaper is buffed a bit, even nerfed Junkrat will be good at spamming a choke point. Tracer will still be pretty good, so what they’re nerfing her pulse bomb, if you’re reading this it’s not like you were good enough to land them anyway. Basically this group is pretty much gonna remain unchanged for most of us.

After a week’s break from the season we’d lost some teams in protest of the upcoming rules change next season. Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren quit, trying to make a point. Team Manor was absent to practise pit stops and was last seen reading “Wet tyres use for dummies”, making the race a head to head between Red Bull and Haas.

At the first qualifying in Malesia some drivers had problems staying on the track enabling CraSix to take the pole position with ease. But with a superb grid start Omsad took the lead only to lose it in the first corner. Trying to regain his position in the third, he took it with an ambitious amount of speed but missed it by some margin.

Omsad tried to regain some time but was hampered by a fan in the cockpit.

After that there were some small collisions, a nice cat and mouse race with Omsad and Alienseatsk8rs but ultimately the first race was CraSix, with MV_930 coming in second, followed by Omsad in third and then Alienseatsk8rs.

The next qualifying was Japan, a hard circuit every time. Here too, the one week vacation showed how drivers could forget the rules of staying on the track. Both CraSix and MV_930 got disqualified from the qualifying allowing Omsad to take his first pole position! WOHOO!!!

Problems with Alienseatsk8rs car meant he didn’t get a chance to take part in the race. But for the rest of the field it started smoothly. CraSix determined to take another win made the decision to use a shortcut on the last chicane to overtake Omsad, and it worked! The rest of the race went peacefully as everyone focused on staying on the track.

The last race of the week took place in the USA. Everyone was little bummed to see rain in qualifying, as it made it slow and hard work to keep the car on the track. CraSix took the pole, driving like Ayrton Senna and Omsad got disqualified for trying to find a shortcut.

We were all pleased to see the sun at the start of the race. Team Haas got a good start, taking the lead. MV_930 then passed Alienseatsk8rs and started the hunt for CraSix. Passing him after his pit stop he tried to ensure he keep the position with a friendly tap.

But CraSix drove like a legend, keeping it consistent and on the track, mostly unlike MV_930.

Dejected MV_930 took the second place again behind CraSix, whom was an impressive 45 seconds ahead.

Team Manor had a nice day reading the manual and practicing pit stops. Reportedly they are pros now, so let’s see what next week and the last races of the season brings.

Far Cry 5 is the latest addition to the Far Cry series by Ubisoft. Rather than taking place in an exotic location it is instead set in Hope County, Montana. The game follows a silent protagonist in the deputy on his journey to take out the Project at Eden’s Gate cult. You fight your way through 3 large areas that feel mostly distinct, doing a series of missions until you are hijacked into the story moments. Overall while those story moments can feel a bit too sudden (especially in one of the areas) it doesn’t do much to take away from the experience.

Much like the previous entries, this is a first person shooter and has some light RPG elements. You can upgrade your ammo capacity, make your guns sway less, and carry more stuff. There is no experience to level up, and instead you unlock perk points by completing challenges or finding magazines that give points too.

The variety of weapons is alright, but not great. A lot of the guns feel exactly the same, and in some cases are the same. There are pallet swaps or just very slightly different stats that you don’t feel the need to upgrade to different weapons when you have fully upgraded the ones you originally got. Vehicles on the other hand mostly feel different. The planes and helicopters don’t feel as different, but the different types of cars or trucks do feel like they have more differences. Car size or weapons drastically change how you drive and you can choose a car based on your mission or playstyle. If you need a quick quad bike or a slow but heavy truck, each one feels like a real choice.

Along with the choices you have already, you are given a choice of companions. You have a varied cast of flawed characters and this choice depends on what you are trying to do. If you are assaulting a large outpost you can go quiet with Peaches the cougar helping you out and having a companion shoot guards with a bow, or you can go loud and send in Cheeseburger the diabetic bear and have an attack helicopter take people out from the sky. These choices are really dependant on your individual playstyle. That being said, the only correct choice for companion is Boomer the best boy.

The game has that AAA type of polish on graphics. The game is breathtaking in the way it looks and in the way it portrays physics. I had more fun seeing how I could get a guy to fly from an arrow or how high I could get a bear to go with explosives. It has those open world quirks that are present in many games of it’s type. My favorite issue I saw was Boomer jumping over a fence and dying to a trash can. Overall I do see less of these physics bugs, but I’m really thinking we will never really be rid of them.

The soundtrack has some good stuff but overall since I stopped playing I don’t remember any of the licensed songs. It is entirely older songs that I distinctly like, but didn’t feel like the focus. The gospel style songs were fun, but ultimately forgettable as well. The best I could say is that the soundtrack was inoffensive.

I have to talk about fishing. Fishing in video games is an easy way to entertain me, unless that is all the game is about. The fishing in Far Cry 5 feels real good. You can choose your bait with a perk and it feels very responsive. It is just a solid gaming experience. The other gimmick does not feel good though. The arcade mode is a sloppy level editor with a few game modes. It might get better over time, but right now isn’t worth the time.

Spoiler

The ending is garbage. There are hints at what is coming if you listen to the insanely quiet radios, but in the end what you did means nothing. Joseph was right and the world is going to end because a foreign power nukes us. The good ending isn’t good (Only Joseph and the deputy survive), the bad ending is bad (you kill all your friends) and the best ending is where you just don’t do anything right at the beginning (you don’t cuff Joseph and probably just let the national guard do the dirty work for you). All of that said I still feel the game is worth playing for the gameplay and the characters, just don’t hold your breath for an engaging end.

Hell Let Loose isa platoon-based realistic multiplayer first-person shooter for PC set during the Second World War, which had an official closed alpha release Friday the 13th around 10pm EDT. Currently only backers of the kickstart and short lived, (like me in the game), PayPal backer campaign can get in on the action.

Overall the launch was successful, the game feels smooth and very fluid. I play at 1440p on a GTX1080 paired with a 7700k CPU and my rig was running at minimal capacity compared to other early access games, and I had 80 to 100+ frames per second. The graphics look amazing and the sounds have been very well executed.

(all screenshots have been captured from in game)

The Black Matter team, opted to use the Unreal Engine 4 for their 100 multiplayer 50 vs 50 team based tactical game. Each team is comprised of platoons, and each platoon have roles that each player can choose from. To win (effectively) you must assume a role, and from the squad leader using binoculars and setting a forward operating post, to the support gunner placing ammo and supply crates, communication is key. Every member of the platoon plays an important role to stay alive, capture sectors, and resources to overcome the enemy and win the war.

Even with the game looking amazing and being historically accurate with realistic weapons, we must realize that this is a closed alpha test and not without bugs or issues. The obvious elephant in the room was an issue with the in game VOIP, crossing over in between servers. There are things like not being able to reload your weapon until you have expended and entire magazine, no current option of to vault over objects, and bullet trajectory or travel speed felt off. However, the devs are working hard and staying in constant contact via Discord, their own website forum, and other social media outlets.

In my opinion, this game has great potential to keep its community engaged and provide hours and hours of entertainment. Future plans include the addition of vehicles, other countries, more weapons, building systems, and different maps. Make sure to visit the website and keep your eye out for the upcoming beta testing and launch of the early access in the upcoming months.